Theos-Talk Archives (August 1999 Message tt00075)

   Now for the Mazeman-You are a fool if you're under the impression
that you just need a better version of theosophy in writing.  Theosophy
is so counter Western/Traditional JudeoChristian belief, so opposed to
the Occidental way that you will have to put in the Mindbending Hours
just like the rest of us, if you really want to understand.  Again -
The Key to Theosophy

As for what you wrote below, I got absolutely nothing from it, besides
a better idea about you.  You don't want to understand anything, you
just want firepower against your enemies.  If it's not easy you wont do
it, will you?


--- THEMAZEMAN@aol.com wrote:
> 
> I also see no reason for the whole world to follow
> one philosophy, whether 
> vegetarianism or whatever. What is right for one
> person or group can be wrong 
> for another, and vice-versa. And, as we know, what
> is right or wrong for one 
> person during one period might be wrong for that
> same person in another time.
> 
> I'm reminded of a dream in which I had been paid
> $1000 for doing something 
> for someone. Then that same person gave me a check
> for a second $1000. He was 
> paying me to kill someone. After some thinking, my
> dream self returned the 
> second check to the person and told him that while
> it was wrong for me to do 
> the killing represented by that check, that it was
> NOT wrong for that person 
> to do it.
> 
> Years ago, when I was a relatively new driver
> filling my tank at the 
> self-serve pump, I'd flip the lever to turn off the
> machine, then I'd drain 
> the hose to get a few more pennies of gas for free.
> Now, I don't do that 
> because I've decided, for myself, that it's wrong
> for me to take that extra 
> few drips of gas. I don't believe that I was sinning
> when I did it in the 
> 70's, and I don't believe that people who do it
> today are sinning if they do 
> it, but I believe that I'd be sinning if I did that
> again. A small real life 
> comparison to the comment in the first paragraph and
> the dream in the second.
> 
> When someone tells me that everyone should not eat a
> particular type of food, 
> I am reminded of certain southern baptist friends of
> mine who tell me that I 
> shouldn't drink an occasional glass of wine. They
> tell me that since Jesus 
> didn't drink, I shouldn't. (Yes, I refrain from
> laughing, I remember the 
> story about Jesus and the wine). (Those friends also
> say that's why their 
> church serves grape juice for communion, even though
> the Bible is very plain 
> that it was a glass of wine that Jesus shared with
> the disciples (if memory 
> serves) at Passover. If the person just said they do
> it with grape juice from 
> church preference, that would be different, but
> trying to quote the bible is 
> what makes me laugh. One church I visited took it
> further, they served water 
> and store-bought bread for communion the Sunday I
> visited there, then 
> preached that it isn't the elements count, but
> what's inside our hearts when 
> we take the communion that counts.
> 
> The world is a world of diversity. I don't think God
> expects everyone to 
> embrace one philosophy, whether it be vegetarianism
> or theosophy or any one 
> religion or whatever.
> 
> However, it would be nice if more people, within
> their own philosophies, 
> would start to admit that other philosophies have
> the opportunity to also be 
> as correct as they are. No philosophy, including my
> own, is 100% perfect.
> 
> We are seeing some of that in current events.
> 
> Two years ago, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in
> America, United 
> Presbyterian Church, United Christian Church, and
> the United Reform Church 
> voted to accept each others pastors in their
> pulpits, serving communion, etc. 
> A similar agreement with the Episcopal Church failed
> to get a 2/3 majority by 
> 6 votes (out of 1000+ people), but the vote to bring
> it up again two years 
> later was unanimous. The ELCA approved it by a slim
> margin when it came up 
> again just a week or two ago.
> 
> On this upcoming October 31, the anniversary of the
> day that Martin Luther 
> posted his 97 theses to the wall of the chapel in
> Wittenberg, Germany, the 
> pope is supposed to announce that Martin Luther was
> right with some of his 
> complaints about Catholocism, one example being that
> people were taught that 
> they could buy their way into heaven. The pope will
> announce that we only get 
> into heaven by the Grace of God (or words to that
> effect).
> 
> When the Pope visited St Louis this summer, he
> invited a Jewish Rabbi to read 
> one of the lessons, and the pope read from Buddhist
> Literature. I'm sure 
> there are other examples.
> 
> One piece of humor regarding the upcoming Catholic
> announcement. After my 
> sister converted from Lutheran to Catholic, she told
> me, repeatedly, that the 
> Pope is perfect and never makes mistakes, and that
> catholocism is a perfect 
> religion, and that Lutheranism is wrong because of
> what a sunday school 
> teacher told her (that teacher didn't believe that
> the wine and bread were 
> blood and body of Jesus, just a representation).
> After the press release 
> announcing the agreement for the two churches to
> lift the condemnations that 
> were put upon each other almost 500 years ago, I
> forwarded that e-mail to my 
> sister hoping she'd admit that catholocism and
> lutheranism might both be 
> equally right. She responded by telling me, in very
> pointed terms, that the 
> selling of dispensations (or whatever the buying
> your way into heaven is 
> called) was merely something done by a MINORITY of
> catholics, and that it 
> never represented the official position of the
> church. She also makes a point 
> of reminding me that I cannot take communion in her
> church.
> 
> I choose not to call myself by any one term. I
> "crash" the theosophical 
> meetings in Sulphur Springs because I want to learn
> more about as many 
> different philosophies as I can. (People in the
> S.S.T.S.Camp know that I 
> crash because my mom pays for the whole weekend and
> only attends half).
> 
> I joined this list, and a few other lists, and visit
> other places for the 
> same reason, to increase my understanding. It would
> be a pretty boring world 
> if everyone were the same.
> 
> Because I don't want to claim any one descriptor, I
> coined a term that 
> emphasizes my belief that all philosophies worship
> the same God. In my 
> opinion, even the atheists and agnostics are partly
> right in their thinking. 
> Some atheists I met were atheists because they found
> something wrong with 
> every religion they visited. At least they're honest
> with their reason. 
> Instead of looking for what's wrong, I choose to
> look for the good I can see, 
> and look for ways to add it to my way of thinking,
> which does not match any 
> one religion.
> 
> John Knoderer
> Multidenominational Cafeterealist
> 
> P.S. I found some interesting newsletters at <A 
> HREF="http://www.shagmail.com/al/affiliates.cgi?276";>this
> site</A>. You might 
> enjoy some, too. Bizarre News, Numerology, Dear
> Abby, etc.
> And, if any of you feel like it, sign <A 
> HREF="http://www.planetall.com/main.asp?cid=6100887&s=193";>my
> address 
> book</A>.
> 
> -- THEOSOPHY WORLD -- Theosophical Talk --
> theos-talk@theosophy.com
> 
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> theosophical ideas and
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> 

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